Parliamentary elections will be held across Zimbabwe on March 31, President Robert Mugabe has announced amid fears the polling could be as violent and flawed as the last vote.
In the 2000 parliamentary elections, the opposition came close to toppling Mugabe’s Zanu-PF, despite electoral rules seen as biased in the ruling party’s favour and violence and intimidation blamed on that party.
This time, it was not clear whether Zanu-PF would even face opposition.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change is scheduled to announce on Thursday whether it will contest the parliamentary poll.
Last year, it suspended participation in all elections to protest electoral laws and to demand an end to intimidation and to media and security laws it believes prevent fair campaigning.
Some reforms have been announced, but opposition leaders say they do not go far enough and have complained of harassment and intimidation already in the lead-up to the March election.
In Washington, a United States State Department spokesperson said on Tuesday that the United States wants ”to see free and fair parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe on March 31 that reflect the will of the people”.
But the spokesperson, Richard Boucher, said, however, that the United States has ”serious concerns about the election environment in Zimbabwe”.
He demanded that controls on the media be lifted, all parties be allowed to campaign freely and political violence be ended.
”Another flawed election only will serve to exacerbate Zimbabwe’s divisions, prolong its economic and governance crises and create even greater hardships for its southern Africa neighbours,” Boucher said.
In a signed proclamation issued late on Tuesday, Mugabe said the Harare Parliament will be dissolved on March 30 to allow for polling on the following day for the 120 elected seats. The president appoints another 30 lawmakers.
Nomination hearings for poll candidates, where monetary deposits and testimonies are handed in, will be held on February 18. The proclamation said voters’ lists will be closed on Friday.
Nearly six-million of the 12,5-million Zimbabwe population are registered as voters.
Mugabe won a presidential election in 2002 by just 400 000 votes against Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai that observers said was, like the previous parliamentary vote, deeply flawed by intimidation, corruption and vote rigging.
Zimbabweans living abroad asked the nation’s highest court, meanwhile, to order the government to allow them to vote in the March election, their lawyer said on Tuesday.
Attorney Beatrice Mtetwa said she filed papers for an urgent ruling by the Supreme Court in Harare citing constitutional rights and provisions in electoral laws allowing for external ballots.
According to official estimates, about 3,4-million Zimbabweans are living in self-imposed exile, most of them fugitives from the worst economic and political crisis since independence in 1980.
Their vote could significantly influence polling in March in favour of the opposition if it runs.
No indication was given when the Supreme Court will consider the case, Mtetwa said.
The government has prevented all but diplomats and citizens abroad on government duty from submitting external or postal ballots.
In Supreme Court documents, a new organisation calling itself the Diaspora Vote Action Group said it had the support of registered Zimbabwean voters in 11 countries, including Britain, the United States and South Africa and as far afield as Brazil and New Zealand.
In the documents, Jefta Madzingo, a Zimbabwean in Britain, and six other signatories said they were temporarily living outside the country for economic reasons.
He said the Constitution guaranteed citizens the right seek jobs, career advancement and other opportunities abroad, but their constitutional right to still participate in politics at home was being denied.
The government last year launched a ”Homelink” scheme of financial inducements to encourage Zimbabweans to send back hard currency and invest in local housing and property schemes.
”Once the government expects us to participate in economic and social development it must of necessity ensure we also participate in the country’s political processes,” Madzingo said.
He said election standards throughout the world and in the 14-nation Southern African Development Community allowed external votes. In neighbouring Mozambique’s elections in December, large numbers of Mozambicans working in South Africa were able to cast their ballots there.
As many as two-million Zimbabweans are living in South Africa.
Unemployment in Zimbabwe exceeds 70% of the work force.
Inflation is 132%, one of the highest in the world, and an estimated 80% of the population are living in poverty.
Acute shortages of food, hard currency, fuel, medicines and other imports are routine. – Sapa-AP